If you read any of my writings, you will know how important I think daily movement is….particularly when it focuses on aerobic activity. The trendy folks today (and some of those stuck on old credos from the 70’s) don’t think that direct aerobic activity is necessary. Well, I’d like to say that I respectfully disagree. Aerobic exercise is vital to your overall health as explained in this recent researched article . Raising your heart rate is the key component to improving your fitness, but how you do it is also important. Without getting too deep into details here, breathing heavy doesn’t necessarily mean your heart rate is elevated….at least not to the level you may think it is. That panting you may experience after a hard anaerobic (without oxygen) effort is the body trying to supply oxygen to the working muscles. Plus, the left ventricle of the heart improves in strength and efficiency. Now, I’m not implying that strength training under isn’t important. Under the right conditions, proper strength training (and other forms of anaerobic exercise) provides tremendous benefits and is one piece of the puzzle in achieving better health and fitness, but don’t be fooled for one minute that you don’t need to improve your aerobic system through direct activity because you do.

Interval training is usually associated with all-out, gut busting effort, but it doesn’t have to be that way all the time. In fact, we probably engage in interval training more often than we recognize such as walking up a flight of stairs or hurry across a street to get to the corner. Another means of achieving an interval effect is to keep rest periods to a minimum while strength training (that’s how we do it) to get the best of both worlds. In this quick clip, leading authority on interval training, Dr. Martin Gibala talks about walking and intervals.